Like Father Like Son (Sequel to The Doctor)

Chapter 3: Anger at a high

Chapter 3

"This is nice..." Lacey chirped a little to happily trying to break the awkward silence at the table. "We've never really gone out to eat recently so this is a nice treat right Hayden?" She asked. His interest sparked at the mention of his name by his mother but his gaze stayed fixed ahead, refusing to be social.

"Mhm." He mumbled with a nod. Lacey sighed, her forehead creasing with tension as she picked her menu off the table. I was hoping this could be family bonding time but it was clear my son still wanted nothing to do with me. I twitched nervously under the tension of the moment and drew Hayden's attention to me for a moment. His eyes watched me accusingly for a moment before flicking away again. He leaned back into the booth with a heavy thump against the hard wood and sighed dramatically before picking up his menu too.

The room was loud and almost all the tables were occupied. Smoke hovered in the air through the open door to the smoker's lounge and the lights were dim. I didn't know much about what was on the menu so I settled on a burger remembering how good the one I had in the diner was. The waitress bounced back to our table and took our food order before drifting back to the kitchen with a smile, leaving us in a dead silence with nothing to hide behind. I stirred my coke with the straw, happy to be focusing on something other then the lack of functionality in our little family.

I could feel Lacey's eyes boring into the top of my head as I gazed down at my drink. I knew she wanted me to say something, to attempt to bridge the gap between Hayden and I but nothing came to mind to say.

"So why are you here?" I jumped slightly and looked up in surprise at Hayden's sudden question. His arms were crossed and his gaze pointed away from me.

"Umm work brought me here.. I can't exactly talk about it though for safety reasons." I said, clearing my throat and squaring my shoulders as I looked at him.

"Where were you before that you had to abandon us?" He said, looking me in the eye and cutting straight to the chase. I resisted the urge to fidget under his harsh, judging gaze then mentally slapped myself. I'm being sized up and intimidated by a child! Why am I letting him get to me? He is locking onto my guilty conscience and using it against me but I had my reasons, I did the things I did with good intentions. 'I wonder if I make people feel the same way? He had to have gotten that gaze from somewhere and it sure as hell wasn't Lacey. He probably got the mental manipulation skills from both of us.'

"I umm.. Well I'm from another world. I was a doctor and over saw a place called the facility that finds hurt humans and heals them. I found your mother a couple years back hurt and left for dead so I brought her back to my world with me and after she was well she began working at the facility and we became.. close. But then there was an attack by my father, terrible guy, selfish and only cares about what he can gain and killing me, and I thought things were too dangerous there for her. So I brought her back here and went back there to take care of things. I didn't know about you at the time and I thought she would just transition right back into human life again. I don't fully understand the workings of human society so I didn't foresee the trouble she would run into. I was just doing what felt right at the time to keep her safe."

"You didn't think to maybe check up on her? Just dumped her here cold turkey and left her to her own defenses?"

"I don't understand what turkey has to do with this..." I said confused.

"It's a figure of speech." Lacey clarified. "And you shouldn't be so hard on him. As bad as Jay was, now that I remember that world and his father I think this was a better alternative." Hayden looked at her incredulously. "You've never been to school and your still to young to have taken an interest in education yet but do you know what lashing is?" I gave her a questioning look, why was she bring this up.